dice magazine

I have a very conflicted relationship with this magazine.

I haven't ever subscribed because I'll always get a copy and something will almost always piss me off and I'll swear off the magazine. Then months will go by, I'll get curious about new bikes, and then order some more, get pissed off, and then repeat the process.

I think the bottom line is that I'm just not cool enough to appreciate the magazine. 

For starters, I love old BMWs, although I don't fit that stereotype at all. I'm far too young, skinny, and without a neon Aerostich explosion-proof suit. That being said, with a house, wife, and 1 kid (+1 pending), I'm pretty much living the life of a 50 year old anyway. I don't buy jeans more expensive than $20, my boots are purpose built (i.e. industrial designed for the industry, not "artisan" designed for hipsters), and I prefer my old leather jacket than a vest, even in the summer. My skin, and tattoos on that skin, are too valuable to me.

But I still like custom vintage bikes, and excellent photography, both check marks in the Dice category. I find both the bikes and pictures inspiring, but sometimes I get the feeling I'm reading a fashion mag. On one page I'll be checking out the primary on a pre-unit Triumph, the next page I'll be reading about what clothes and accessories somebody is wearing. I almost wish the magazine would be published without text, that way I can just enjoy the pics. Once I start reading about how someone bought the bike built from somebody else and the various shout out to all the popular Cali builders that did this and that - at that point is about when I get ready to toss the mag into the garbage. But I don't, I finish reading and eyeing, and then file the mag away in the book shelf.

I think this is it though. I'll keep getting my fix from GKM, IMM, and BMWMM. I'm the kind of guy that thinks if you spend $250 on a denim vest you're an asshole, same with having someone else build your bike so you can pose on around it in clothing more than my mortgage payment. I'm unimpressed by cute girls with 2 weeks riding experience on a stock Honda that someone else works on. I'm unimpressed by motorcycles being used as fashion accessories. Unfortunately all of these things have been outnumbering the gems that I buy the magazine for in the first place. 

People seem to be into this though, a lot of them; so the real problem, I think, is my antiquated, BMW riding, self.